Oxford English Dictionary & Thesaurus

A collection of interesting, entertaining facts about and insight to the Oxford English Dictionary & Thesaurus, comprehensive resource of the English language.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary & Thesaurus

The Oxford English Dictionary - its modern day's edition as Concise Oxford English Dictionary & Thesaurus - has established itself as the most authoritative rendition of English language dictionaries since its first publication in June 1887. In its scope, it covers the etymological evolution of the English language in its millenary existence, and brings an unsurpassed array of terms, pronunciation, historical and linguistic quotations of over half a million terms. Highly regarded by specialists from the most varied fields, the Oxford English Dictionary traces a vast array of technical terms.

Furthermore, the Oxford Dictionary has done something that no other dictionary before had been able to accomplish as successfully: For the first time, it brought to stage the colloquialisms, common expressions and regionalisms of other variations of English as spoken in far away corners of the English speaking world, including the United States and Canada as well as all other commonwealth countries. The Oxford English Dictionary managed, thus, to bring about the voices of the Anglo-Saxon worlds in its truest forms.

Building on the observation of the shortcomings of other lexical publications, the Oxford Dictionary editors compiled a more rounded presentation of how terms should be defined: It presents full definitions of obsolete words, clear distinction between synonyms, relevant examples of usages, among other features. It also categorizes terms definitions chronologically, i.e., it presents terms according to their actual, present-day relevance, and leaves obsolete quotations to appear at the end of each entry.

Nowadays, in our computerized age, we have this scholarly masterpiece in its online version: The Online Oxford dictionary serves all its in-depth, distinctive features as a quick reference available right at your desktop.

With offering the Concise Oxford English Dictionary & Thesaurus in one package the Oxford University Press established a reference tool with greatest value for anyone striving for better English.